“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets” ~Psalm 50:1

God’s Children

Paul had written to the Galatians concerning the law. He sought to debunk the falseness of legalism as well as harsh, erring teachers whose elitism was excluding certain believers from the body of Christ. He does so by placing faith up on display and it’s object (Christ) over all legal obligations. He reasons that works cannot save and that there is no superiority between brothers in Christ – all are one in him. In other words, there are no “better” Christians or “lesser” Christians as these elitists and arrogant teachers were proposing. Every believer is on level ground at the cross (Galatians 3:26-29) and therefore no one has a right to exclude another based upon legal obligations.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. ~Galatians 4:1-7

In chapter 4, Paul goes on to compare the Old Testament believers as underage children of a king. He reasons that children and slaves do not differ until the child becomes mature, and that in Christ believers are now mature, adopted sons. The indisputable proof of our sonship and inclusion is found not in external obligations or internal bloodlines, but by the seal of the Holy Spirit which gives us the right to cry out to God as our very own Father.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ~John 1:11

Christ’s own people did not receive him. Neither did they receive his followers. They chose instead to continue in slavery and attempt to bind God’s true children to that same life-sucking slavery.

Paul will not stand for this kind of gospel truncation because it is a damnable heresy. He chooses instead, like Christ, to identify with those who were despised and rejected and assure them that they indeed have been given the right to become the very children of God.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in us bears witness to us by prompting our hearts to cry out to our heavenly daddy whenever the law or its tyrannical masters seek to condemn or exclude us on any legal basis. Christianity is not a matter of legality, but of faith. Legalists obey the law in the sight of men because it makes them feel superior to everyone else. Faithful children obey the Lawmaker when no one even sees or knows because he is our Daddy.